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No Round 2 For PreKindergarten: Now What?

March 30, 2012

Joyce Szuflita, of NYC School Helpis our School Expert and always has the scoop on what’s going on with schools. Joyce sent me an email that there will not be any Round 2 for Prekindergarten. She also breaks any school news on her blog here so make sure you check it out and sign up for her newsletter that gives you the full scoop!

From Joyce:

The DOE is changing it up this year. They have eliminated the Round 2 lottery for seats left vacant after Round 1. Was it too late for families, or too cumbersome or too expensive? We will never know. What we know now is that the responsibility for placing left over spots goes to the schools and they have not been given any protocol on how to proceed. I called a couple schools to see what they were planning on doing and they said that the DOE will probably send instructions to them in the principals’ weekly newsletter but it would likely come just before the process begins (it is not uncommon for the DOE to dole out important information like this at the last minute). When I called Central Enrollment, they gave me the very unacceptable (and probably inaccurate) answer that the numbers of seats available at the schools would be posted in fall of 2012 – like parents would just wander in mid September to claim left over seats?! Clearly, they hadn’t thought this through. I have talked with insideschools and they are digging for more a more accurate forecast of the process schools should be following.

Here is what we can guess; most schools will probably not be taking names for a wait list until after the last day of Round 1 registration – according to the DOE’s current calendar registration ends on Friday, June 22 – so I would be ready to attack the wait lists on Monday June 25 bright and early. The schools won’t know if they have seats available until that date and why bother collecting a list of names before the fact if some of those people may be placed elsewhere and you could lose the list in the many months before you can use it. How will they be assigning seats? Will they get a prioritized list of names? Will they collect names and do it first come first served or will the schools do their own lottery? Nobody knows.

What do you do now?

I would keep in close contact with the parent coordinator at each school that I am interested in for prek, to make sure that I don’t miss what they are going to do in June.

*****Joyce Szuflita, NYC School Help, is a 28 year Brooklyn resident and the mom of teenage twins who has spent years interviewing educators, touring schools, combing the internet and being generally obsessed with all aspects of public and private schooling in Brooklyn and NYC. She consults privately with families who want to navigate the school search. She can be seen in the NY Times, Time Out NY Kids, NY Family – Brooklyn, achildgrowsinbrooklyn.com and nycprivateschoolsblog.com